Effective April 1, changes are happening to Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans

[Brooke_C]

Hey Community,

Public Mobile is continuing our evolution to an online-only brand with the goal to provide customers more choice in a clear and uncomplicated way.  Along this journey, we are making some changes. On April 1, 2017, all Legacy/ Pioneer rate plans will increase by $3 per month.

If you are not on a Legacy rate plan this increase does not apply to you.

You are considered a Legacy/ Pioneer customer if you are currently on one of the following rate plans that was available prior to January 27, 2015:

• $19 Province-Wide Talk
• $25 Canada-Wide Talk + Text
• $40 Canada-Wide Talk + Text + 1GB Data
• $45 Canadian & U.S. Talk + Text + 1GB Data
• $60 Canadian & U.S. Talk + Text + 2GB Data

To learn more, click here.

Thanks,

Public Mobile Community team

[kav2001c]

@imm1304 I personally would migrate to Koodo or change plan but there are a few bad reasons not to switch

1- Koodo charges for call. If you go to Koodo you do get call centre support, BUT they bill you (depending on nature of call, usually between $2 to $5 each time you call in).  So if you frequently call, the Public +$3 fee is moot

2- Koodo is POSTPAID. This means:

2A- Client must be capable of passing credit check (not to be mean but trust me lots of clients can not; I worked for a cellco in the past and was quite surprised at how many people can not qualify even on BYOD plans)

2B- As plans are postpaid you now get OVERAGES and suprise charges (such as ROAMING costs if near border, or even LONG DISTANCE charges for thos in Ottawa area who get picked up on a Quebec cell tower)

3- Inertia (many people simply do not like change)

4- Light users have huge benefit from one time payment for long distance / data add ons. As these never expire, it is quite possible for someone to pay once then have access for year. On Koodo you either get billed monthly or pay much higher pay per use rates.

@CuriousRandUser not much in way of negative but see above

 @Siméon brought up a good point that add-ons never expire

[kav2001c]

@Shutdown there must be some provision in law that prevents this. Lots of carriers do price creep all the time. But no carrier has ever just removed a service.

Even when the carrier has been informed the service was illegal.

Call centre cost is totally different even if every client switches to Koodo.

There are far more Koodo subs than Public subs so the call centre does not suddenly get alot more calls.

Plus remember that Koodo CHARGES clients every call they make to call centre.

Public is free.

In that scenario if you are someone who makes 1 call per month to call centre it is actually CHEAPER to stay on Public.

[north450]

Surprised you do not keep your emails 

[north450]

received email from public mobile Fri, Aug 22, 2014 at 8:01 PM

Public Mobile here. We've just completed the transition to our new Canadawide
4G network, and
we hope you are enjoying all the benefits.
Continuing to provide our customers with competitive rates is really important to us. That's why we
have decided to make a significant change to the way we do business. Starting August 25th, we
are closing all Public Mobile stores and moving to new Self Serve options. We understand this
is a big change for customers who are used to making payments instore

etc

the last point

Self Serve is an easy way to manage your account online or through our automated touch tone
phone system at your convenience, 24/7. You'll be able to make payments without the $3 instore
payment fee, track your usage, make changes to your rate plan, and much more. Registering for
Self Serve is easy; all you need is an email address and your Public Mobile phone number. Visit
SelfServe.PublicMobile.ca to get started.
It is important to note that you are still a Public Mobile customer and your rate plan will not change
as long as you continue to make your payments.
Let's keep the conversation going.
Public Mobile

Now  we have to goto koodo

Its  a scam 

public mobile broke its promise and you are all so happy

[ShawnC13]

@humonculi  The original post of this of this thread is that as of April 1 all legacy plans are going up $3 a month.  Your $25 is the only one that still makes sense to stay without changing to a new PM plan.

[humonculi]

It seems to me that it's a whole tactic. I have a grandfather plan unlimited canada wide calling and text. for 25$ a month. 

from what I've read PM can't actually change our plans prices, but I might be wrong.

By making us move to koodo they are getting the opportunity to sales preasure us into getting bigger plans including data. And most of us have our own phones so lets not forget that without a contract( not taking a phone) legally speaking koodo can actually do what they want and simply tell us that our new plan (PM replacement plans) aren't going to be offered no more ( legally speaking they can do what they want with a 30 day notice if we don't have a contract). I've already gotten that done to me by Virgin mobile. 

[SD08]

@CuriousRandUser

Telus owns both Koodo and PM, so they all have the same network, which by the way, includes Bell cell towers across Canada, as Telus and Bell share infrastructure.  Coverage is not an issue moving from PM to Koodo.

[CuriousRandUser]

So, I got a text from PM about this, and decided to bring this up with the rest of my family - who all are also on PM. One of which said Koodo has less coverage than PM. Can anyone confirm this? From what everyone else has said so far in this thread, it doesn't seem like there are any cons to this offer, but I can't believe it's true.

There must be some kind of con, correct? Anything at all? Is there any sort of issue with Koodo that would make it bad to switch over?

(Also, just to note, I got the $25 Canadian-Wide calling and Texting plan)

[SD08]

---

@syed_milad wrote:

the equivalent amount of remaining data ADD ONS will be transfered to my koodo account ? any idea ??? 

---

No.  None of your "add-ons" will transfer.  They will be forfeited.

Please read the Question & Answer section in the link.  It's all covered there.

[syed_milad]

the equivalent amount of remaining data ADD ONS will be transfered to my koodo account ? any idea ??? 

[SD08]

---

@syed_milad wrote:

Hello, my current plan is 25 CAD / month (Unlimited Canada-wide Talk + Unlimited Text). I have 360.638 MB  /  1039.576 MB DATA as Add-ons. If I move to KOODO:

1) Will by $25/MONTH bill will be continued after 1-April-2017 ?
2) My Add-Ons of 360.638 MB  /  1039.576 MB DATA will be transferred to my Koodo Account ? 
3) As a transferred koodo user,  am I eligible for iphone 7 (128GB) with medium caps ? 

---

1) Yes, they will give you the same plan at Koodo.  You'll need a promo code received in a text msg from PM.
2)  As per the FAQ in the link that Brooke_C included in her post, any add-ons that remain in your account cannot be transferred to Koodo.  Any balances (available funds), up to $300 will be transferred.
3) There is mention of a Koodo phone tab, which perhaps covers what you're looking for.

Be sure to read all the FAQ in the link, as it will likely answer all your questions:

https://publicmobile.ca/en/on/serviceupdate

[syed_milad]

Hello, my current plan is 25 CAD / month (Unlimited Canada-wide Talk + Unlimited Text). I have 360.638 MB  /  1039.576 MB DATA as Add-ons. If I move to KOODO:

1) Will by $25/MONTH bill will be continued after 1-April-2017 ?
2) My Add-Ons of 360.638 MB  /  1039.576 MB DATA will be transferred to my Koodo Account ? 
3) As a transferred koodo user,  am I eligible for iphone 7 (128GB) with medium caps ? 

[PhoneSeeker]

---

@Shutdown wrote:

They like PM. As in no overrage and they have loyalty reward discount making it still cheaper perhaps.

---

Legacy PM plans aren't elegible for rewards/loyalty discounts.

[ShawnC13]

I have pre tax as that is what plans are listed at. Either way would be way better of going to a new plan. Depending on province she could save up to $230 that is including taxes

[canucks4life]

Kind of off topic but does anyone know if Intl/overseas roaming works on Koodo?

[SD08]

---

@makkahn28 wrote:

I have all that, So I have what Koodo offers, Roam though separate

---

To be clear here, we're talking about moving from the PM $60 legacy plan to the PM $50 current plan:

Legacy PM plan: 30-day Canada & US Talk + Text + 2 GB for $63/mth (after $3 increase)
In-market PM plan: 90-day Canada & US Talk + Text + 6 GB for $150 ($46/mth after $4 autopay & loyalty rewards)

[makkahn28]

I have all that, So I have what Koodo offers, Roam though separate

[SD08]

---

@ShawnC13 wrote:

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@makkahn28 wrote:

It's not the end of the World

$3, as long as it's not a constant thing, then I'll be OK, since My Mother is on my Former Legacy $60 Plan

---

@makkahn28  your mother would be better off getting on a new plan.  She can get Can and US calling. global texting and 6GB of data over 90 days for $150.  That is $50 a month and still have 2GB.  Even with just autopay and loyalty reward she would save around $168 a year*

*Based on $150 90 day plan with autopay $2/month and loyalty reward $2/month

---

Actually, the savings going to the equivalent PM in-market plan would be well over $200/year, after autopay, loyalty rewards, and taxes. Remember, rewards are pre-tax amounts.
[63-(50-2-2)] x 12 x HST = $204 x HST
At minimum, it would be $214 savings, maybe more depending on the province. That amount can help pay for a nice phone. 🙂

[makkahn28]

@imm1304, @ShawnC13, My reason of keeping my Mama on the PM Legacy is that PM is consistent, and ZERO Shock on Data, Koodo has some Shock, Plus if Quality of service IS Great, Why Leave?

PM has been Great to me, Plus I also have Add-On Data attached, So I think PM is still the correct Carrier

[imm1304]

@Shutdown,

I loooove PM, so if I had this choice to make,  I would stick around with one of the newer data plans and with rewards, it would be the best deal for me.

For those who think customer service via phone is essential to them, the Koodo offer allows them to keep their legacy plan while adding the benefit of Koodo tab and access to retail stores.  So, its pretty much guaranteed that there will be no overages.  

[Shutdown]

They like PM. As in no overrage and they have loyalty reward discount making it still cheaper perhaps.

[imm1304]

Hey @makkahn28,

I am curious to know.. why not migrate the legacy line to Koodo?  What would be the main reasons preventing you from making that move?  

[imm1304]

@Shutdown, PM is being nice and going the extra mile to honor their commitment to the pioneer/legacy customers.  Koodo migration is simply amazing because  not only do they get the phone support, but also get customer service via retail stores nationwide.  As a bonus, they can even start buying new phones on Koodo tab.  

I agree that there are easier options for PM on how to deal with this.  But, its great to see that they continue to treat the customer right.  

Legacy customers have excellent and very fair offer on hand at the moment.  

[computergeek541]

---

@Shutdown wrote:

Maybe they are going to merge the call center for PM/koodo in order to reduce cost.

---

How do we know that they haven't  already?  Making a comparison to Rogers, I've had a bunch of times the CSR say "thank you for choosing Fido' when I was a Rogers Wireless customer.

[ShawnC13]

---

@makkahn28 wrote:

It's not the end of the World

$3, as long as it's not a constant thing, then I'll be OK, since My Mother is on my Former Legacy $60 Plan

---

@makkahn28  your mother would be better off getting on a new plan.  She can get Can and US calling. global texting and 6GB of data over 90 days for $150.  That is $50 a month and still have 2GB.  Even with just autopay and loyalty reward she would save around $168 a year*

*Based on $150 90 day plan with autopay $2/month and loyalty reward $2/month

[makkahn28]

It's not the end of the World

$3, as long as it's not a constant thing, then I'll be OK, since My Mother is on my Former Legacy $60 Plan

[will13am]

Being a noob to Public Mobile, this thread has been rather informative.  Thanks @SD08 for providing the excellent comparison.  The old plans are obviously call centric as compared to the new plans which are data centric.  It is interesting how Public Mobile appears to have intentionally weakened the call offering in the 2016 fall promotion.  The legacy plans pretty much all include Canada wide calling, plus US calling option.  Most plans offered these days are doing away with long distance, yet the fall promo went in the opposite direction and included only province wide calling.  I am sure a lot more customers would have signed up had the fall promo included Canada wide calling as it would placate to both those who make a lot of phone calls as well as those who focus more on data use.  I sense this approach isn't going to change any time soon, considering that Telus would rather migrate legacy customers to Koodo instead of keeping them under the Public Mobile umbrella.  Here I thought the next promotion would top the last one by including Canada wide calling with a large data bucket.  Nice pipe dream on my part.

[Shutdown]

@CaNuCk07 if the people hop on to koodo, then the call support cost is the same. Since they will just keep the same number of call center employees but have more customers to deal with. Maybe they are going to merge the call center for PM/koodo in order to reduce cost.

[CaNuCk07]

@Shutdown  Curiously, one wonders why they didn't leave the plan costs the same and remove phone support, rather than assuming the $3 to cover increased costs of phone support.

But then i guess maybe the people keeping the legacy plans enjoy the call center part, hence offerring them call center support through koodo.

I  guess i dont have an opinion on this lol.

[Shutdown]

If they can change the rates like that then why don't they just change the plan so it no longer has call center support?